Little Reviews: Poem for Thursday and May the Fourth

Thursday, May 05, 2022

Poem for Thursday and May the Fourth

Spirits
By William Archila

At daylight, he surrendered to the gutters’
thick cirrhosis, his trajectory

half awake, half anvil from the glass to the killing floor
I was raised in, each thin thread tethered

from the root of a nicotined tooth
to the rusted bars of the slammer. I couldn't tell you why

Felix the Cat came to mind, totally inebriated,
two Xs, bubbles popping, his gait

a saint carried in a procession—Cherry Pink
& Apple Blossom White, 1955—

except that my grandfather died
with a bottle in his pocket, his Robert Mitchum

chin & pompadour distilled
from a banana republic in fire, a slow, steady

drinker, perfect fulfillment to drown out
his manhood. There's a certain kind of fix

that falters precariously,
a benediction when they allege

one more drunk for the hood. He didn't matter
to the dispenser nor the riffraff crowd.

Nothing about him capsized, except his compound
of cologne & corrosion. All those rotguts.

All those bums. They didn't matter
to the nation, though they were the nation.

--------

Greetings from the middle of two media-driven holidays -- May the Fourth Be With You, not even the date on which a Star Wars movie opened but made official in California a few years ago as Star Wars Day, and Cinco de Mayo, a minor holiday in Mexico turned into a big excuse for Dos Equis in the U.S. In this household we celebrate both with food, so I ate well today. Katniss and Effie did not have as good a day, though, because we had a bunny on the porch right outside the glass door and they had no idea what to make of it; too big to be a squirrel, too small to be a raccoon, definitely suspicious and obviously hungry.

The only other event of my Wednesday was chatting with my high school friends, which always makes me happy even when we're all shrieking about the Supreme Court supporting state control of individuals. After our Star Wars themed dinner, we watched The Flash, which killed off one of the few characters I actually still care about -- why must that be coming back when Legends of Tomorrow is not! -- and the season finale of Moon Knight, all of which I enjoyed so much more than expected -- a Jewish superhero married to an Egyptian superhero in a world where Egyptian gods are real deserve a second season!